{"id":3031,"date":"2015-09-15T10:56:55","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T17:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=3031"},"modified":"2015-09-15T10:57:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T17:57:24","slug":"the-road-goes-ever-on-and-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/the-road-goes-ever-on-and-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road Goes Ever On and On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the photos I took on our 2013 Camino – and I took thousands of them – this is the one that for me best sums up the spirit of the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

\"Francine<\/a>

Francine in the Mists of Galicia<\/p><\/div>\n

I<\/span>t was taken as we walked through the Galician forests on our way to the Royal Monastery of Samos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It reminds me very strongly of Bilbo’s Old Walking Song<\/em>, which I sometimes sang softly on the Way:<\/p>\n

The Road goes ever on and on
\nDown from the door where it began.
\nNow far ahead the Road has gone,
\nAnd I must follow, if I can,
\nPursuing it with eager feet,
\nUntil it joins some larger way,
\nWhere many paths and errands meet.
\nAnd whither then? I cannot say.<\/p>\n

Roads go ever ever on,
\nOver rock and under tree,
\nBy caves where never sun has shone,
\nBy streams that never find the sea;
\nOver snow by winter sown,
\nAnd through the merry flowers of June,
\nOver grass and over stone,
\nAnd under mountains in the moon.<\/p>\n

Roads go ever ever on
\nUnder cloud and under star,
\nYet feet that wandering have gone
\nTurn at last to home afar.
\nEyes that fire and sword have seen
\nAnd horror in the halls of stone
\nLook at last on meadows green
\nAnd trees and hills they long have known.<\/p>\n

The Road goes ever on and on
\nOut from the door where it began.
\nNow far ahead the Road has gone,
\nLet others follow it who can!
\nLet them a journey new begin,
\nBut I at last with weary feet
\nWill turn towards the lighted inn,
\nMy evening-rest and sleep to meet.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am in mind of this because about a week ago, Francine and I took what was supposed to be a short hike that eventually turned into a half-Camino day of about 11km. I think it was actually longer than our shortest Camino day – which was the day after the photo above was taken.<\/p>\n

\"Francine<\/a>

Francine on the Tree Tunnel Trail near Sequalitchew Creek<\/p><\/div>We began with the relatively short and flat Sequalitchew Creek Trail in nearby DuPont. But then, the road went on in ways we had not anticipated.<\/p>\n

After talking with several locals, we struck out down a side-path and over a metal-slab bridge across the creek. Then a series of steep switch-backs uphill and overland to the Tree Tunnel Trail seen in this photo.<\/p>\n

Through the trees to one side is a golf course, and to the other side is the bluff overlooking Puget Sound. By the time we got near the end, we could see the Nisqually River Delta.<\/p>\n

It was a beautiful walk on a beautiful day with my beautiful bride.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, we were exhausted – a clear reminder of how much training work we have yet to do! Fortunately, the vino tinto helped.<\/p>\n

More training is not the only thing on my agenda. I also need to renew my passport. I’m planning to send that off this week, assuming I can find the time to get a photo taken.<\/p>\n

And of course, there are some equipment that needs to be acquired. My hiking pants have served me well, but they’re worn and torn and definitely on the “replace” list.<\/p>\n

And I still need to knock another pound or two from my pack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all the photos I took on our 2013 Camino – and I took thousands of them – this is the one that for me best sums up the spirit of the pilgrimage. It was taken as we walked through the Galician forests on our way to the Royal Monastery of Samos. It reminds me very strongly of Bilbo’s Old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-planning","category-ruminations","category-thom","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3031"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3125,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3031\/revisions\/3125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}